Only I Am A Reader
chapter-70

In the world where a gigantic sword fell from the sky and changed everything, certain rules could never be broken. Still, every rule is bound to have its own exceptions. The ability to surmount the wall between each Swordsman grade, also known as 'Sword Heart', was such an exception.

Coined with this specific name by his master, this was the cheat ability that Ray, the world's protagonist, had received as the culmination of his previous life's experience as a Sword Master. Not only did this ability enable him to fight Swordsmen above his grade by raising his Sword Breath's quality, but it was also influenced by his emotions, making it very suitable to use as a 'plot armor'.

Unfortunately, this was as far as this world's exceptions went. For the rest of the Swordsman, having no less than a grade that's equal to your opponent's was a must, otherwise, not even a Sword Breath cover could prevent their sword's predetermined destruction and get reduced to normal humans.

Naturally, one's grade wasn't everything either, especially in this world where only the sword was the only supernatural element. Theoretically, it was possible to perform a grade break if the opponent had poor sword skills, a weak body, or a weak sword, but such a situation was barely feasible.

Every grade advancement wasn't a simple matter, it might be somewhat fast at the beginning, but the time spent climbing up could only be counted in years, and with time came experience. Not to mention that one would naturally get more skilled with the sword as their grade advanced, the number of paper tigers who only climbed grades without doing anything else was almost null.

However, when a battle was held between two of equal grade, it was then that these factors decided one's survival, and that was exactly the reason why Leo was visiting Crane today!

'I wonder if he is already done…'

Relaxedly walking around the town streets, Leo was grateful that he no longer had to feel the chill of being watched. Thankfully, the last two weeks after the kidnapping attempt had been peaceful.

Since nothing was stopping him, Leo went back to training and ended up revising his schedule once more. Aside from the morning physical exercise that could be resumed with Crane's help, Leo split the rest of his training time between 'Sword Breathing' and 'Sword Training'.

As a 'Reader' who naturally knew all the factors that decided one's strength, Leo didn't slack down in preparing himself to be the one to always come on top. After a year of effort, he could be said to have sufficient advantage with his sword skill, and he was steadily working to have the physical advantage as well, but Leo had no plans to stop at that. He similarly wanted to remove the weakness that the last factor could present.

Knock. Knock.

Upon entering the Blackbird, the very first thing that met Leo's eyes was a deep in thought Crane staring at a large piece of paper laid on the table before him. Moreover, the forge seemed to have not been used for a while as the heat wasn't as intense as usual.

"Oh hey, have you figured it out yet?"

Looking at the focused Crane, Leo felt weird when he compared this scene with the original Crane, but he still called him out. Although… he didn't receive an answer.

"Helloooo…"

"Huh? Ah, Arthur! You are finally here!"

After Leo raised his voice, Crane finally took his head out of the paper as he happily shouted, he had been waiting for Leo for a while already!

"Yeah, how have things been going?"

"Things have been crazy! I have been studying this for weeks and I barely just started understanding how it works…"

As much as Crane's words seemed like complaints, his face showed nothing but excitement. After all, Leo had once again presented him with a new idea that made no sense, or at least that was the case at first.

"So, can you make it?"

"Naturally! Who do you think I am? Seriously though, where does your mind get these strange ideas? This was the first time I saw such a complicated sword box!"

Even in a battle between Swordsmen of equal grades, sword destruction was a very common problem. Having your sword break before your opponent was equal to a death sentence, and the number of competent Swordsmen that lost their life due to the lack of a better blade in this novel was not small. Learning from their example, Leo came up with an 'item' to increase his battle duration!

'It's crucial even if temporarily.'

Although Leo didn't lack the information to obtain a special sword or two, it wasn't the right time to take them just yet. So instead of quality, he decided to focus on quantity!

Staring at the paper that had the drawing of a wooden box holding some mechanical parts within, Leo smiled at Crane's question.

"It's not just my idea, it's something that both I and my brother came up with."

Despite Crane's high praise for the idea, it wasn't really something special. It was a mechanical design that Leo came up with based on the revolver but with more steps involved. The only reason Crane found it difficult to understand was that this world still had little to no understanding about mechanical actions of springs and the like.

"Sure…"

Crane simply looked back at Leo, obviously not convinced. He might have believed this a year back, but he was skeptical about it now.

The blueprint Leo had given him wasn't easy to make, but it actually solved the problem of sword destruction mid-battle. Through some complicated metal parts, one could contain a few swords in one box that would automatically pop out in turn after each one is taken out. This idea was just as revolutionary as the alloy idea Leo had presented!

"Alright, I will come back to visit and check on the progress later. I appreciate your help."

"Oh right, what are you going to name it?"

Stopping just before the door at Crane's question, Leo turned back with a grin as he thought of something cheesy.

"Revolving Backpack!"